Summary: Visual imagery used in drawing regulates arm movements in manner similar to how hunters visualize the arc of a spear.

Visual imagery used in drawing regulates arm movements in manner similar to how hunters visualize the arc of a spear. Neanderthals had large brains and made complex tools but never demonstrated the ability to draw recognizable images, unlike early modern humans who created vivid renderings of animals and other figures on rocks and cave walls. That artistic gap may be due to differences in the way they hunted, suggests a University of California, Davis, expert on predator-prey relations and their impacts on the evolution of behavior.

Neanderthals used thrusting spears to bring down tamer prey in Eurasia, while Homo sapiens, or modern humans, spent hundreds of thousands of years spear-hunting wary and dangerous game on the open grasslands of Africa.

Richard Coss, a professor emeritus of psychology, says the hand-eye coordination involved in both hunting with throwing spears and drawing representational art could be one factor explaining why modern humans became smarter than Neanderthals.

TJrandom wrote:I never threw spears, but was rather good at throwing stones... Does that explain why I can`t draw? But wait... I was good at drawing water with a bucket. And... and drawing the short straw...

I read that article also, and my skepticism immediately kicked in. There is only one quality our species has, in which we are superior physically (as opposed to brain power) over all other living things. That is, we are the best in the entire living world at throwing. Turns out that our shoulder joint is subtly different to other primates, in order to permit exceptional throwing ability.

Our ancestors undoubtedly used throwing spears with great effect, and that would have been a major contributor to their survival. Neanderthals did not. That difference may have been how it was that sapiens was able to drive Neanderthals to extinction. But the 'superior' sapiens shoulder joint did not come from being able to draw.

Lance Kennedy wrote:I read that article also, and my skepticism strawmanning instinct immediately kicked in. There is only one quality our species has, in which we are superior physically (as opposed to brain power) over all other living things. That is, we are the best in the entire living world at throwing. Turns out that our shoulder joint is subtly different to other primates, in order to permit exceptional throwing ability.

Our ancestors undoubtedly used throwing spears with great effect, and that would have been a major contributor to their survival. Neanderthals did not. That difference may have been how it was that sapiens was able to drive Neanderthals to extinction. But the 'superior' sapiens shoulder joint did not come from being able to draw.

Fixed your spelling error.

He doesn't propose that drawing influenced the shoulder joint. He hypothesizes that the same shoulder (more precisely - it's throwing ability)allowed better drawing skills, and that the planning skills needed for artistry and hunting enhanced each other and may have caused an increase in intelligence.

. . . with the satisfied air of a man who thinks he has an idea of his own because he has commented on the idea of another . . . - Alexandre Dumas 'The Count of Monte Cristo"

There is no statement so absurd that it has not been uttered by some philosopher. - Cicero

All I know is: everything is connected to everything else.........so........at least there is a connection. I know that when my shoulder hurts, I don't feel like drawing?---and you do have to move your shoulders to set up those easels. Or... pile up rocks to get high up on the primo spot on the wall, top of the cave??? Looks like lots of shoulder work to me.............

Real Name: bobbo the existential pragmatic evangelical anti-theist and Class Warrior.Asking: What is the most good for the most people?Sample Issue: Should the Feds provide all babies with free diapers?

bobbo_the_Pragmatist wrote:All I know is: everything is connected to everything else.........so........at least there is a connection. I know that when my shoulder hurts, I don't feel like drawing?---and you do have to move your shoulders to set up those easels. Or... pile up rocks to get high up on the primo spot on the wall, top of the cave??? Looks like lots of shoulder work to me.............

I agree - without the shoulder movement, those cave paintings would have been at chest level at best. And maybe that is where the Neanderthals drew, and the Sapiens erased.

Even a Neanderthal could pile a few logs to stand on if he wanted a higher painting. Nor do I think his shoulder joint would stop him reaching high. Throwing is not the same as reaching.

I didn`t write the article and know nothing of Neanderthals, much less their shoulder restrictions. Michelangelo painted something while on his back, using scaffolding - but cavemen probably did not erect scaffolding to `do` their ceilings, so I suspect that free shoulder movement was necessary. Just a hunch.

New dating technique shows that Neanderthals were making art at least 70k years before the earliest known H. sapiens art. Some cave art thought to be H. sapiens was done 20k years before H. sapiens arrived on the scene.

H. sapiens art is more detailed, which brings us back to the OP.

. . . with the satisfied air of a man who thinks he has an idea of his own because he has commented on the idea of another . . . - Alexandre Dumas 'The Count of Monte Cristo"

There is no statement so absurd that it has not been uttered by some philosopher. - Cicero

New dating technique shows that Neanderthals were making art at least 70k years before the earliest known H. sapiens art. Some cave art thought to be H. sapiens was done 20k years before H. sapiens arrived on the scene.

H. sapiens art is more detailed, which brings us back to the OP.

Neanderthals are alive and well at the NYT with their simple Subscribe Now or no peeky peeky. The Telegraph to the rescue.